Update on Christmas

This is up at Hardware Ranch - did I capture the essence of Steve or what?

Hi everyone! Sorry I have been silent for so long. I have just been so grateful to have a normal life, I didn't want to miss out on anything!

So.....I'll tell you about Christmas. It was wonderful. Santa went overboard. I think the kids were happy with their treasures. We however, did not get a Wii. Wendy did and I played it and I love it soooo much. And so Randy, I'm there brother. I will Wii with you anytime!!! =)

Anyway, back to Christmas. We did our homemade gifts this year and the kids did better at there gifts then Steve and I did. So Trenton made Steve a wreath with a bunch of miniature fishing things on it like a vest, boots, a pole, fish, a net, and some bobbers. It is really cute. Britney made me a candy dish. It is metal and she painted different saying on the for sides and on 2 of the sides she attached photo frames so I can put pictures in them. And of course she filled it with candy. It is perfect. Steve made Britney a puppet show thing out of PVC pipe and material. Basically it is a 6 foot tall, 4 foot wide curtain that she can hide behind and open the curtain when she is ready to do her show. It turned out pretty good, but is kind of wobbley and he has to brace it somehow. I made Trenton a tent. Well I'm still not done with it. It is huge! And it is also wobbley- PVC pipe as well. I'll finish it this week. I think it looks pretty cool.

Steve got a tree stand for Christmas. A huge thanks goes out to Jake and Deb for driving an hour out of their way to pick that up for me. Here are some pictures of him climbing the power pole accross the street from us. He loves it!!! I'm the best wife! =)

Anyway, we had a great Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve with my family and went to Steve's mom's on Christmas Day. They made me sew. Actually, it was fine. Adrian had a quilt that she had been working on for a while and so we all jumped in and helped her out. Even Britney did some sewing on it - we're talking quilting here folks, not just tying it. Anyway, believe it or not it was relaxing, and nice to just sit and talk. That doesn't mean I want to do it every day, just so you guys don't get the wrong idea about me.

We had fun over Christmas break too. I was able to get the entire 2 weeks off work, so I just got to play with the kids. We went sledding one day with Wendy and her kids and also Kellie. That was fun. We also went and saw Bolt and Bedtime Stories. They were both excellent movies. We spent New Year's Eve with our good friends the Robinson's, I was not much fun. I was very tired, but the kids had a great time and their baby is so cute and fun to watch.

Just this last Saturday we got to go to the open house of the Draper Temple. It is a beautiful temple. Brett Robinson put in all of the locks on the temple, so he was invited to go and they invited us. Anyway, we went into the chapel at the church next door first and saw a video, which made me cry - no big deal, everything makes me cry lately. Then we went on tour. It was so funny. I was remembering when I was 10 and got to go to the Jordan River Temple open house and everything mom and dad tried to tell me and make sure that I knew, and I found myself doing the same thing to my kids. It was so important to me that they understood how special everything was. But everytime I opened my mouth, all I heard was mom. Thanks for helping me out there mom.

Well, that's us in a nut shell!